The UW volleyball team (7-9, 17-11) picked up a much-needed Big Ten win over visiting Iowa Sunday afternoon, sweeping the Hawkeyes 25-16, 25-23, 25-16.
I'm happy that we came off an emotional match Friday night and played some solid volleyball,"" head coach Pete Waite said. ""It was nice to get the win over Iowa after we went to their place and played poorly in the first match of Big Ten play. I think we showed that we're very much improved as a team and headed in the right direction.""
Senior middle blocker Andra Jeffers led Wisconsin with 10 kills, and sophomore outside hitter Allison Wack dug a career-high 14 attacks in the Iowa sweep.
Although the Badgers out-dug, out-hit and out-blocked the Hawkeyes (6-10 Big Ten, 14-14 overall), they experienced the loss of junior All-American outside hitter Brittany Dolgner, who was out before the match started and appeared with crutches midway through the second set. Trainers said after the game she had an ankle sprain, but there is still no word on how long she will be out.
Filling in for Dolgner was the outside hitting tandem of junior Caity DuPont and Wack, who together tallied 16 kills.
""I thought it was great that everyone else stepped up,"" Waite said. ""I think Allison and Caity DuPont stepped up well and everyone filled in '¦ That's what being a team is all about, you never know when somebody's going to be hurt or be sick on a day and everyone else has to be ready to play at any given notice.""
DuPont and Wack had quite the void to fill after Dolgner's numbers Friday night in a disappointing border battle loss to archrival and No. 15 Minnesota (11-4, 21-6) with scores of 18-25, 25-18, 27-25, 31-29, 19-17.
""It was certainly an exciting match. Our kids played hard, played with all their hearts,"" Waite said. ""I wish they would have come out on top so they could have been rewarded for their effort and gotten a win here tonight, because that was a big one against a very good team.""
UW jumped out to an energetic 9-5 lead in set one, before the Gophers came roaring back to take a 16-13 lead. After a UW timeout, the Badgers finished off Minnesota with a 12-2 run to take the first set. The Badgers hit .391 while the the Gophers hit -.083 in the first set.
Minnesota's defense, behind libero Christine Tan's seven digs, picked up in the second set. Tan finished with a team-high 23 digs on the night, while the Gophers continued to serve UW tough, getting the Badgers out of sync early.
The teams went back and forth for the final three sets, with the Badgers eking out the win in set three on a Dolgner tool off the block on their third set point.
Jeffers, who finished with 12 kills on the night, hit .500 in the first three sets right over the Minnesota block.
""The coaches did a nice job of letting us know that their blockers were leaving us one on one there and jumping in,""
Jeffers said, ""so I just knew that that
half of the court would be open.""
As the match wound tighter in sets three through five, Wisconsin's 16 service errors became more costly. Wisconsin owned four match points in the fourth set, but failed to put the ball away as Minnesota stole the set to pull even at 2-2.
""It's a matter of them staying composed and staying with the correct technique that we teach them; sometimes they're going with too much adrenaline,"" Waite said of the service errors. ""If we're going to get that many, we need a lot more service aces.""
Minnesota kept up the momentum and took advantage of Wisconsin's tentativeness, sneaking out the win in set five.
""The way they battled tonight, it shows that they're playing with more fire than they have all season, and that's great - we wanted to be building to this point,"" Waite said. ""One play here or there and that's our match '¦ we're not done by far.""
Overall, Wisconsin converted on only two of nine set points and none of its five match points against the Gophers.
The Badgers' 1-1 record on the weekend puts them alone in sixth place in the Big Ten, and assures them an over-.500 record overall - two qualities the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee will look at in December.
The Badgers have just two weekends left of regular season competition and will face four tough teams they have yet to defeat this season in Indiana, No. 1 Penn State, No. 17 Illinois and No. 18 Purdue.
